


Home Is Where The Heart Is

by imaginary_golux



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Force Soulmates, M/M, Multi, Sentinel Senses, Smut, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-05-28 04:40:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6315322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn and Rey can feel the kinship between them; they also feel an inexplicable attraction to Poe Dameron. (Over and beyond the perfectly explicable attraction of his stupid beautiful face, that is.) Poe thinks they're wonderful but is slightly dubious about mystical soulbonds.</p><p>Beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

FN-2187 has always hated his helmet. It muffles sight and sound and scent almost unbearably, its smooth inner lining is scratchy against his skin, and he knows - he _knows_ \- he could do much, much better without it. Considering he’s the best in his class, that’s saying something. He’s always been able to taste more than the other troopers can in their bland meals, too, noticing well before anyone else when they’ve switched suppliers or varied the formula in the synthfood, though he learned young not to _tell_ anyone that he could taste the difference - that only got him sneered at by officers and teased by classmates. It was a _difference_ , and difference is not allowed among the First Order’s Stormtroopers. It is one of the reasons that even though he is the best in his class, the most skilled at every training sim, the quickest in every tactics exercise, he has no nickname, no solid group of comrades to mourn him when he is gone.

When he meets the Resistance pilot, pulls off his helmet to tell the man that they will escape together, he is struck first and most strongly by the man’s _smell_. Beneath the rank fear-sweat and the copper-tanging blood, this man smells _good_ in a way no one else ever has, smells like safety. FN-2187 is nearly bowled over by it. Something in him cries out to keep this man safe, to protect him always, to be near him for all time. FN-2187 is baffled.

And when they crash-land on Jakku, and the only thing the newly-named Finn can find of the pilot - _his_ pilot - his Poe Dameron - is the jacket which smells of Poe and blood and engine oil, Finn takes it with him. The world is a lesser place without Poe in it, and Finn wonders if anyone else will ever smell so much like the one thing Finn has never had: a home.

*

Rey is a good scavenger for many reasons: she is smart, she is fast, she is surprisingly strong for her slender frame. But there is also this: she can see the difference between two nearly-identical parts with ease. She can smell a sandstorm before it arrives, and tell how long it will take to reach her position. She can feel hairline cracks in the things she scavenges, and knows which parts will work and which will break when they are used. She can hear the sinking sands before they give way beneath her feet. And, unfortunately, she can taste the difference in the ration packs Plutt gives her, and tell when they’ve gone bad. She never gets food poisoning, though she often goes hungry.

When she meets the ‘Resistance big deal’ Finn, when she takes his hand to help him up, something in her cries out that he is like her in some fundamental fashion, that he is her kin somehow. She doesn’t know what to do with that feeling, so she pushes it down and away, as she pushes her own sorrow away when she has no time to weep, and flees with him from the First Order.

(There’s something about his jacket, too - she catches just a whiff of it - and it smells _safe_ , somehow. Like engine oil and home. She has even less idea what to do with _that_ feeling than she does with the idea that Finn is somehow kin to her, and ignores it even more thoroughly.)

*

Finn’s decided he should trust his weird new feelings, which is why the scavenger girl who smells like kinship has his instant loyalty. Well, that, and she’s defending the droid which Poe Dameron so wanted to retrieve, and Finn thinks that if he can do something Poe would have wanted, that would be...good. That would be good. It would honor the man who died and left such a hole in the galaxy, in Finn’s life.

So he does as she tells him, shoots as well for her as he did for Poe - and she flies like Poe, too, fast and reckless and astonishing - helps her fix the ship and then unfix it, hides with her in the cramped little hole regretting the oxygen mask over his nose and mouth which means he can no longer smell kinship-likeness from his companion.

They do not trigger the poison gas, when the new people enter the ship, in part because when the tall man speaks, he _sounds_ , just a tiny bit, like Poe did. Finn exchanges a confused glance with Rey, pulls off his oxygen mask and takes a deep, silent breath. The intruder _smells_ just a little bit like Poe did, too, not in the particulars, but in the odd smell of _safety_. It is muted, different; it is not Finn’s safety. But _someone_ finds sanctuary in this man’s company.

Rey is giving Finn a truly baffled look. She has her mask half-off, too, and Finn realizes that if she is like him - if this odd scent of kinship-likeness is accurate - she must be smelling it too. And she doesn’t have Poe to compare it to. He tries to give her a reassuring smile.

Then they are meeting the infamous Han Solo and Chewbacca, and then they are running for their lives from two different heavily-armed groups of very nasty people _and_ a bunch of carnivorous tentacled aliens, and Finn doesn’t really have time to talk to Rey about the way some people smell _safe_.

*

Rey has never met someone who smells as _reassuring_ as Han Solo does. She doesn’t know _why_ he smells so reassuring - he’s a smuggler! A known liar! In their first few hours aboard his ship they get chased by a lot of people with guns and then she has to rescue Finn from a tentacle monster! He’s gruff and snide and thinks the ship she and Finn stole from Plutt is _his_! But something in her wants to lean against his shoulder and just...breathe in. He smells like safety. No one she has ever met has smelled like safety before. She has _no_ idea what to do with that.

But when he offers her a job, a place on his ship, she very nearly accepts. It would be almost - _almost_ \- like having a father, and she wants that so strongly she could weep with it. But she has to get back to Jakku. Surely her own father and mother will smell even more of safety and reassurance than this near-stranger does. Surely her own family will smell more like kinship than Finn does. Surely.

*

When she wakes on the _Finalizer_ , strapped to a chair, the first sense which returns to her is smell, and she can smell Kylo Ren. He smells _wrong_. He smells like he _ought_ to be kin and isn’t, like Finn gone horribly, horribly wrong, like a thing which _should not be_. When he hurts her, she’s almost glad for the pain, because it lets her ignore the awful smell for a while. And when he takes his helmet off to show her that he is human beneath it, she is astonished, because surely something which smells as _wrong_ as he does should not be human. It’s sickening, to know that if she looked at him and could not smell him, she might think him normal, pleasant even - but she _can_ smell him, and what she can smell is that he should have been kin to her, closer kin perhaps even than Finn is, and instead he is a monster. She wants to throw up, and doesn’t dare.

*

Finn can smell Poe all the way across the landing field. When he catches Poe up in his arms, it’s the best feeling in the world, and he’s struck all over again by the overwhelming, inexplicable desire to protect Poe from _everything_. He wants to keep touching Poe, to keep a hand on him, to feel skin-on-skin, and thankfully Poe seems to be just as tactile as Finn suddenly wants to be, keeps a hand on Finn’s arm or thrown across Finn’s shoulders as he leads Finn to meet the General.

The General is tiny, which is the first surprise, and she smells like kin, which is the second. She gives Finn a rather startled look, too, which Finn suspects means that _he_ smells like kin to _her_. But he doesn’t have time for that right now. Rey has been captured; he can worry about kinship with incredibly famous Resistance generals _later_. The General seems to agree, because she doesn’t say anything, just gets on with the planning.

There’s this, though, that Finn notices: Han Solo never smelled like _Finn’s_ safety, but as Finn watches the General and her long-estranged husband together, he can almost see the ties between them, can smell the bond which joins them. Han Solo is the _General’s_ safety. Interesting.

If one of the people-who-smells-like-kin (and surely there is a word for them?) and one of the people-who-smells-like-safety have a bond, perhaps Finn can also have a bond with one of the people-who-smells-like-safety. Maybe even with Poe.

*

Finn meets Kylo Ren for the first time without his helmet on, and is struck instantly by the _reek_ of wrongness. It doesn’t help that Finn just saw Kylo Ren kill Han Solo, and something in Finn cried out in horror at the sight. People who smell like safety are meant to be _protected_ by people who smell like kin - by people like Finn, by _Finn_ \- and seeing one of them slain is a blow to the very heart of Finn’s being. Han Solo was not _his_ person-who-smelled-like-safety, but he was the General’s, and somewhere, Finn knows somehow, she has just been given an injury which can never be healed.

Finn takes up the lightsaber not only to protect Rey, but because Kylo Ren has done a thing which should not be, and of all the many crimes which Finn knows can be laid at Kylo Ren’s feet, Finn can sense somehow that that one was in some way the worst of all.

The strike which lays Finn low is bad, bad enough that even as a Stormtrooper he would not have been expected to get up again, though he wants to - he wants to rise to his feet and take up a weapon - but the pain is all-encompassing, he can smell nothing, taste nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, there is only the pain and his world goes black.

*

Rey would have slain Kylo Ren if the breaking ground had not intervened, regardless of the harm that killing him where he lies might have done to her own soul, because the man who is her kin lies bleeding on the snow and the man who offered her a home is dead at Kylo Ren’s hands. Something fierce and feral in Rey’s heart cries out for Kylo Ren’s blood, and she wants _so badly_ to tear the beating heart from his chest with her own bare hands.

But the ground breaks, and then Chewbacca is there with the _Falcon_ , and she takes Finn and flees the dying planet, swearing even as she goes that someday Kylo Ren will die, and if she is very lucky, it will be at her hands.

*

Leia is kin, too, as Finn is kin, and Rey wraps the other woman in her arms and they weep together for the man who was safety to both of them. And then Leia brings Rey to the med bay where Finn is lying, and for the first time Rey meets the man whose jacket Finn wears.

If Han Solo felt like, smelled like what Rey has always wanted in a father, Poe Dameron feels and smells like what Rey has always wanted in a _home_. She can’t help leaning towards him, yearning a little for more of that tantalizing smell. She wants to touch him, too, but can’t quite come up with an excuse.

But when the map has been completed, and everyone is hugging each other in victory, Poe hugs _her_ , and it’s...she could spend _hours_ in his arms. She normally hates touching people, but she could curl against him and be perfectly content to stay there possibly forever.

No wonder Finn was - _is_ \- so devoted to him after so short an acquaintance. Rey herself might cross a planet and steal a starship to do something Poe Dameron wanted. She might count it a small effort indeed.

She could destroy the entire First Order for Poe Dameron, and count it a small effort.

That scares her, actually, when she realizes it. She has _never_ felt so instantly desirous of another person’s attention and affection.

She’s almost glad to be sent off into the wilds of the Uncharted Systems to find Luke Skywalker. Poe will look after Finn, and she can get her head sorted out.

*

Luke Skywalker smells like kin too. At this point, Rey’s not even surprised. She’s figured out that smelling like kin is almost certainly the same thing as being Force-sensitive, which means that Finn, too, can use the Force - or will be able to when he wakes up, anyway.

And she learned to trust what she can smell about people years ago. Luke Skywalker smells old and sad and weary, and he smells like Leia, and he smells like kin.

So she offers him the lightsaber hilt, and swears to herself, silently, that if he does not take it - if he sends her away untaught - she will learn _anyway_ , because she will see Kylo Ren dead, she will see Finn grow strong in the Force, she will be what she has been born to be regardless of what this weary old man chooses.


	2. Chapter 2

Rey returns to the Resistance with Luke Skywalker in tow. She isn’t sure she likes him. He still smells like sadness all the time, and though he does smell like kin, and though he’s willing and able to teach her, the cloying scent of sadness gets old after a while. Life is hard. You get over it or you die. If she’d spent years mourning she’d be _dead_.

So she’s glad to see Poe, who gives her a warm hug and smells like _home-safety-joy_ , and glad to see Finn, though he’s still unconscious. It’s only been two weeks, and he _is_ healing, the med droids assure her; it is only that he is not yet well enough to wake. She spends some hours sitting beside his bed, with Poe across from her, telling her about what has been going on in the Resistance base for the past few weeks.

And then Rey thinks of something - thinks of how Finn would have crossed galaxies for Poe, how he cherished that jacket, how Poe smells so damn good to her and therefore probably also to Finn - and says, “Have you tried to call him back?”

“What?” says Poe, who was in the middle of an anecdote about one of the other pilots doing something rather stupid.

“Have you tried to call him back?” Rey asks again. “I know you’ve been in here every day - your chair smells like you - but have you asked him to come back, for you?”

Poe blinks at her. “Back up a moment,” he says slowly, “my chair smells like me?”

Rey sighs impatiently. “Being a Force-user means I have enhanced senses,” she explains. “Master Skywalker says all Force-users do. Finn _also_ has enhanced senses. And you smell good. I don’t know why - Master Skywalker won’t say. But some people smell...I don’t know. Safe.” She shrugs. “I know Finn can smell it - I mean, I know he likes the way you smell.”

“I...honestly don’t know how to react to that,” Poe says slowly. “But if you think it might work - okay, how should I do this?”

Rey shrugs. “Just...get close to him, and talk? Ask him to come back? There’s something about your _voice_ , too, it’s weird. It makes me want to listen to you a lot.”

“That’s...a thing,” Poe says. But he gets up and leans over so his face is very close to Finn’s, so that Finn must be surrounded by his scent. Rey watches hopefully.

“Come on back, buddy,” Poe says, softly. Whatever it is that Rey has been hearing in his voice is stronger now. “Come on, you’re safe now - you’re healing, you’re here with me and Rey. Come back, buddy. Wake up.”

There’s something infinitely compelling about his voice. Rey finds herself wanting to stand and move closer, and grips the sides of her chair to keep herself in place. This call is not for her. But Poe reaches out to her, gestures for her to take his hand, and she can’t help but obey, joins him at Finn’s bedside with Poe’s fingers warm in her hand, his voice echoing into her bones. “Come back,” says Poe, soft and commanding. “Come back, Finn. Wake up. Come back to us.”

Finn’s eyes open.

*

For a long time, there was only pain and darkness, and then even the pain went away, and Finn was trapped in the darkness: no light, no sound, no scent, no smell, nothingness on every side. It is not a pleasant place to be, utterly sterile and empty as the darkness between the stars.

And then there is a smell, that wonderful smell: engine oil and safety and _home_. And hard on the heels of that smell, a voice, _Poe’s_ voice, first an indistinct murmur and then a clear, beautiful sound, like a pathway leading him back to his body and the light: _Come back_ , Poe’s voice echoes in his ears, in his soul, _come back to us_.

Finn opens his eyes. He is looking up at Poe, and at Rey behind Poe, and they are the most beautiful things he has ever seen.

“ _Hey_ , buddy,” says Poe, sounding utterly delighted. “Good to see those lovely eyes open again!”

“Finn,” says Rey, quietly and full of joy, and hugs him.

*

Some time later, once the med droids have looked Finn over and Poe has gone and gotten Finn some clothing to borrow and all the fussing has died down, Finn finally gets a chance to ask what just happened.

Rey gives him a sort of helpless shrug. “I know you can smell it - that Poe smells _safe_ ,” she says.

“He smells like home,” Finn agrees. “You smell like family.”

“Yeah,” Rey says, and shares a warm smile with him. Poe looks back and forth between them, baffled but game to try to understand. “Anyway, I thought - and you know how he and Han sort of _sound_ the same?”

“Yeah,” Finn agrees. “Sort of...comforting? Or compelling?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Rey agrees. “So I thought maybe if he called you, you’d hear. Especially if you could smell him, too.”

“It worked,” Finn says cheerfully.

“What the kriff,” says Poe faintly. “I’m some sort of...of Jedi-whisperer?” Then, of course, he has to explain the idiom. But once he does…

“Yeah,” says Rey. “I think that’s it.”

“Sounds right,” Finn agrees.

“I do not know how I feel about that,” says Poe.

*

“Those who can ground Jedi are even rarer than the Jedi themselves,” Master Skywalker tells them all, later that evening. “I had only met one, until now.”

“Han,” Rey and Leia say in grieving unison.

“Yes,” Master Skywalker agrees. “I think - from what Obi-Wan told me, after his death - that our mother Padme was one, as well.” He seems to see nothing strange in saying that someone told him something _after his death_ , which weirds Poe out even more than the rest of the conversation.

“But what _are_ they?” Rey asks. “How do they ground us?”

“Force only knows,” Master Skywalker says, shrugging. “They are a gift from the Force, just as the ability to use the Force is a gift. But being near a grounder, so the ancient records I have found say, makes it far easier for a Jedi to use and control the Force and their senses alike.”

“Just...being near them?” Poe asks. “So it’s not really something I _do_?”

“That too,” Finn says. “You called me back.”

“If there are skills you might learn, I do not know them,” Master Skywalker says regretfully. “Leia? Did Han…?”

“No,” says Leia, flatly. “He did not care to think about it, and it was never necessary that he be more than...present...to keep my senses under control.” She looks bleak. “And it is possible and more than possible to learn control _without_ one’s grounder, as well.”

“It is more than possible, it is _necessary_ ,” says Master Skywalker sternly. “You two have been lucky enough to meet a grounder - but we are at war. And there is of course no requirement that Commander Dameron should do you the honor of his company.”

Finn and Rey look at Poe with wide, hopeful eyes. Poe winces a little. “Of course I’d be happy to spend time with both of you,” he says. “But I don’t know how to be a grounder, or even if I’ll have time. As Master Skywalker says, there _is_ a war on.”

“That’s alright,” says Rey, nodding firmly. “As long as we’re _near_ you, I think everything will be fine.”

*

Poe has his own room - one of the perks of being a commander - but there’s an empty two-person room just next door, and Finn and Rey move into it happily. Neither of them has any more possessions than the clothes on their backs - not even that, in Finn’s case - but they are delighted with their new space all the same. And once the door closes behind them, they sit down on their respective bunks and stare at each other across the intervening space.

“Poe is home,” Finn says finally, “but you’re family.”

“Yes,” Rey agrees, and reaches across the space between them. Finn clasps her hand. “My first family left me behind,” Rey says softly and solemnly, “but you came back for me.”

“And you came back for me,” Finn replies, just as solemnly.

“I always will,” Rey promises.

“And I,” Finn says, and they sit quietly smiling at each other over their clasped hands for a long and peaceful time.

*

Finn’s not quite sure what to expect of life on the Resistance base - he half expects to spend all of his time being interrogated about the First Order - but the most jarring part of it is actually how unstructured it is. Meals are served for two-hour periods, and anyone may eat whatever they like; sleeping hours are whenever you please; and his duties, such as they are, leave him distressing amounts of free time. He spends his mornings telling the General everything he knows about the First Order, and his afternoons learning to be a Jedi alongside Rey; but there are hours and hours when he has no duties whatsoever.

During those hours, he likes to find Poe. Poe is usually tinkering with his ship, and if Finn shows up looking hopeful, Poe will teach him how to repair an X-Wing, or program a new skillset into a droid, or just sit on a crate with Finn leaning against his shoulder and sing. Finn likes few things in the galaxy more than sitting with Poe warm against his side and Poe’s voice ringing low and sweet through the landing bay. It soothes something deep in Finn’s soul, some wound he did not even know he had.

*

Rey is also not entirely sure what to make of being an apprentice Jedi. She works hard - mornings and afternoons alike she trains with Master Skywalker - but it’s not as hard as being a scavenger was. There is always enough food, and for the first time in her life she has meat on her bones, curves to her body. She is growing stronger and swifter with every day. But there is so much free time, so many hours in which she need not work for her bread. She can only read so many holobooks, only meditate so long.

When she is too jittery to meditate, she goes and finds Poe. Often this is in the morning, while Finn is with the General telling her all he knows, and Master Skywalker is off doing...whatever it is he does in his spare time. Poe grins at her when she arrives, and lets her help him fix spaceships, or tells her stories about his childhood in a green and welcoming place, or - best of all - lends her a helmet and the use of an X-Wing and goes up in his own black ship, to dance through the airless sky above D’Qar with her. There is nothing there but the ship and the sound of Poe’s voice in her ears as he calls commands from his own cockpit, and Rey thinks as she swoops and dives and barrel-rolls in perfect unison with Poe that she has never been happier in all her years.


	3. Chapter 3

“We want to try something,” Finn says. “You don’t have to do anything but be there, I promise - you can even read a holomanual or something.”

“Alright,” Poe says, following Finn down the corridor, hand firmly clasped in Finn’s.

“We want to see how much stronger these two are with a grounder in close proximity,” Master Skywalker explains when they arrive.

Rey and Finn both sense Poe going very tense, though he says, “Sure, makes sense,” as though he hasn’t a care in the world and sits down on the bench waiting for him.

Rey and Finn exchange a long glance. But they cross the room and wait for Master Skywalker to start the test without saying anything - there will be time later, in private, to talk about this.

All the evidence suggests that being close to Poe - better yet, being in physical contact with Poe - increases their control over their senses and Force-powers immensely. And with every increasingly difficult test that Poe’s presence helps them through, Poe gets a little tenser, and a little less happy. When Master Skywalker finally tells him the tests are done, he leaves the room with a speed that’s very nearly rude, making an excuse about needing to talk to Pava which Rey and Finn can both tell is a lie.

“Later,” Rey mutters to Finn. “We’ll ask.”

Finn nods. Master Skywalker says, with inordinate cheerfulness, “Meditation, padawans! Today we meditate in handstands.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker,” Rey and Finn chorus.

*

They go looking for Poe after dinner that night. To their mild surprise, he is not in the landing bay or his room or even the pilots’ rec room; instead, they trace his scent up to the roof, where he is sitting on a blanket, leaning back against BB-8 and looking at the stars. They hesitate in the doorway, not wanting to intrude if he wants to be alone, until he sighs, not looking at them, and says, “Come join me.”

They sit down on either side of him, not quite daring to touch. He is quiet for a long time, and Rey and Finn glance at each other uncertainly across him and then sit quietly, staring up at the stars. If nothing else, Jedi training has certainly taught them to sit quietly for long periods of time.

“It’s like this,” Poe says, eventually, voice soft and sad. “If the place where I can do the most good for the Resistance is as a...a touchstone for the two of you, then that’s where the General will assign me. And I’ll do it, and I’ll even understand. I’ll give my life for the Resistance. But I...I’m selfish enough not to want to stop flying.”

“We could never take that away from you,” Finn protests.

“You could if it was the right thing to do,” Poe points out wearily.

“Poe,” says Rey, voice hard as stone, “that could _never_ be the right thing to do.”

Poe turns to look at her, startled. “What - really?”

“If you don’t want to be our - our touchstone,” Rey says, “then don’t. We _can_ control ourselves without you. We _can_ be Jedi without you. And if you’re not happy, having you there with us _won’t help_. We’ll be concentrating on _you_ , and trying to figure out how we can _make_ you happy. Because _that_ is what matters to us, not the power boost.”

Poe turns to look at Finn, who nods. “She’s right,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what Master Skywalker or the General says. If _you_ don’t want to be there, it won’t actually help - and we would never take your ship away from you. It’s where you’re happiest. We won’t - we _can’t_ ruin that.”

“Oh,” says Poe softly, and reaches out to take their hands. “I could - I could be with you whenever I wasn’t flying. If that would help.”

“Only if you want to,” Finn says.

“Yeah, buddy,” Poe says, face creasing at last into a smile. “Yeah, I think I’d like that. Helping you.”

The twin smiles he gets in return are nearly blinding.

*

“Today I have a test for you,” Master Skywalker says to Rey, and puts an ancient piece of stone down on the mat between them. It is covered in carvings, some alphabet Rey doesn’t know, and it’s clearly a part of a much larger work.

“When you touched my lightsaber, it told you its history, and perhaps its future,” Master Skywalker says. “Tell me what you can glean from this stone.”

Rey hesitates. She has vivid and unpleasant memories of the visions the lightsaber gave her, and this is older by far than the ‘saber - and therefore probably stronger. She takes a deep breath and puts a hand on the stone.

She is somewhere else.

*

_I am Skellig,_ says the ancient being in front of her - a humanoid of no species she can identify. _I am Master of the Jedi Order. I speak to you across time and space, young padawan_.

_Greetings, Master Skellig,_ Rey replies, knowing as she does that she is speaking entirely in her mind, or perhaps in some alternate place made entirely of the Force - her body, sitting cross-legged on the mat in D’Qar base, is still and silent.

_If you speak to me, then you have found the greatest blessing which the Force has given us_ , Skellig says. _You have begun to bond with a Blessed One._

_A grounder?_ Rey asks. _And - bond? Forgive me, Master Skellig, I do not understand_.

_Of course you don’t_ , Skellig replies, smiling. _The Blessed Ones are few, even in my own time, and after my time the Jedi Order turned away from the bonds which made us strong, saying that as there were too few Blessed Ones, not all Jedi could have the blessing of the bond, and so no Jedi should have what another could not._

_That...seems fair, Master Skellig_ , Rey says dubiously. Certainly she’d be very unhappy if Finn were to have all of Poe’s attention, and she were to have none. Though Finn is her kinsman, and she would do her best to be happy for him.

_Fair but not wise_ , Skellig says seriously. _The Blessed Ones are a gift from the Force. To reject it is to reject the will of the Force._

_But...there’s only one grounder here,_ Rey points out. _And Finn and I both want to spend time with him - to bond with him, I guess, though I don’t know what that means._

_And do you love this Finn as your partner and your kin?_ Skellig asks.

_I do_ , Rey replies.

_Then you may share in the bond, you and your kinsman and your Blessed One together, and be stronger for it,_ Skellig says. _And now my time grows short - open your mind to me, and I will give you the knowledge that you seek._

_Thank you, Master Skellig_ , says Rey, and lets her shields fall.

There is a sudden inrush of data, so much that her vision goes white with it - and then, abruptly, it becomes entirely too much, and the world goes black.

*

Rey wakes up to see Master Skywalker and Finn and Poe and BB-8 all crowded around her, looking at her with expressions of deep concern. She is in the med bay, and her head hurts like it’s been used as a kickball by a whole _horde_ of children.

“Ow,” she says, and Poe turns away briefly to pull one of the med droids over and demand painkillers. Finn reaches over and starts gently massaging Rey’s temples, and she closes her eyes and lets him work the pain out.

A few minutes later she opens her eyes again and grins up at Finn and Poe. “Thanks,” she says.

“Any time,” Poe says easily. “You scared us a bit.”

“Master Skywalker,” Rey says, “the fragment is from the first Jedi Temple, and was laid in place by Master Skellig of the Jedi Order, ten thousand years ago.”

“Thank you, Rey,” Master Skywalker says, a little sadly. “I apologize for the hurt it did you - I did not think it would injure you.”

“It didn’t,” Rey says, and grins at Finn’s indignant noise. “No, really. I just...learned a lot. And it overwhelmed me.”

“I see,” says Master Skywalker. “Then, should we attempt this trial again, I will use a younger artifact - one with less history to it.”

“Thank you,” Rey says. But she doesn’t say anything else until much later that night, when she and Finn and Poe and BB-8 are up on the roof again, Rey and Finn leaning against Poe’s shoulders and watching the stars wheel by.

“So,” says Finn after a while, “did Master...Skellig tell you anything else?”

“Yes,” says Rey. “A lot. I’ve been trying to get it all straight in my head since I woke up, and I don’t think I’ve quite got everything yet. But here’s what I do have: it’s perfectly possible for us to control ourselves without relying on you, Poe. But we’re _better_ with you.”

Poe winces. Rey pats his hand. “Don’t panic. There’s another ‘but.’ There’s something called bonding, which would mean we could...rely on you, I guess is the best way to put it...even if you were all the way across the galaxy.”

“Wow, _really_?” Finn says, delighted.

“Yep,” Rey says cheerfully. “Normally, one Jedi would bond with a grounder. But if there are two Jedi who trust each other completely, and want to...er...share a grounder, then there’s a triad bond that will work just as well or maybe better.”

“So I could be flying a mission, and you’d still be able to ground on me,” Poe says slowly. “That sounds...good. What’s the catch?”

Rey sighs. “There’s two catches.”

“Of course,” Poe says, a little despondently. “Go on.”

“Catch number one,” Rey says. “The bond is sexual, and would need to be reinforced...at irregular but relatively frequent intervals.”

Finn makes a sort of squeaking sound of astonishment, and then claps a hand over his mouth. Poe snerks. “I have to admit that catch isn’t as horrid as it might be,” he tells Rey, grinning. “You two are pretty easy on the eyes.”

Finn squeaks again. Rey laughs at him. “Yeah, going to bed with the two of you wouldn’t exactly be a hardship,” she agrees. “I think, though, that it would be an _exclusive_ relationship - for all of us - so, you know, there’s that.”

“Good to know,” Poe says. “What’s catch two?”

“Catch two,” Rey says, grimacing a little, “is that apparently we’d be telepathically linked. Permanently.”

“You’d be in my _head_?” Poe says, recoiling a little.

“Yeah,” Rey says. “And that’s why I won’t blame you even a little bit if you say you want nothing to do with this.” She gives Poe a long, solemn look. “I had Kylo Ren in _my_ head, too, and honestly, I completely understand if you never want anyone else in your head again.” She pauses, then adds, slowly, “But there’s this - if you’re bonded to us, you’d be protected against things like that. We could protect you. Even from far away.”

“Huh,” says Poe, and then, “I...need to think about that.”

“Of course,” says Rey. “I won’t mention it again unless you ask.”

“Same,” says Finn, quietly. “And - no matter what - we’re on your side, Poe. Whatever you want, we’re good.”

“Yes,” says Rey calmly. “Always.” She snugs up against Poe’s shoulder a little more and points up into the dark sky. “Tell us about that constellation?”

Poe relaxes, and does.


	4. Chapter 4

Finn and Rey talk it through properly that night before bed, Jedi to Jedi, speaking in whispers so soft that even another Force-user couldn’t hear unless he was right in the room with them.

“Permanent, irrevocable,” Rey murmurs. “We’d be bound together tighter than Master and padawan, tighter than family, tighter than anything.”

“We could never lose each other,” Finn replies. “Right?”

“Until death and after,” Rey agrees. “Even after we go to the Force, we’d be bound.”

“Kriff,” Finn whispers. “Do you - do you _want_ that?”

“What sort of question is that?” Rey demands. “Do I want people I can never, ever lose? Of _course_ I want that. And if it’s you and Poe - I couldn’t ask for better. Do _you_ want that?”

“Yes,” Finn says instantly. “You’re family and Poe’s home and I want - I want you both. Forever.”

“We’d be - it goes both ways,” Rey says. “He’d be in our heads, too. No secrets. No lies. All the dark places, brought into the light for him to see.”

Finn winces a little. “There’s...he thinks we’re young, too young, but I’ve seen...that was my first battle, but we watched, we _saw_ …”

“I’ve seen...things he never should,” Rey admits. “You’re right, he thinks we’re innocent - even Master Skywalker and the General think we’re innocent - but...yeah. I’ve seen things. Done things. You do what you have to, to protect yourself.”

“Yeah,” says Finn quietly. “Wish I’d been there for you then.”

“You’re here now,” Rey says. “That’s enough.”

*

They don’t mention it to Poe again, true to their promise, for several weeks. They don’t ask him to join them at practice, they don’t talk about bonding, they do their very best not to imply that their companionship has anything to do with a desire for more. And as the weeks go by, it gets easier.

“Even if he never wants to bond with us,” Finn says quietly one evening as he and Rey are getting ready for bed, “I want to keep being friends with him. Even after the war is over.”

“Yeah,” Rey agrees. “He brought me cactus candy today - I didn’t even know that existed.” She tosses Finn a piece, and he pops it into his mouth and hums with pleasure.

“Can we protect him even without the bond?” Finn asks some days later. “Like, put a shield on him or something.”

“I don’t know,” Rey says. “I’ll ask Master Skywalker.”

When the answer is _no_ , they agree not to tell Poe. It’d be pointless to get his hopes up and then crush them again.

“What does the _grounder_ get out of this?” Finn asks her one evening. “We get extra control and power, and also we get _Poe_ , which, I mean…”

“Would be pretty awesome even if he wasn’t a grounder,” Rey agrees, grinning. She’s leaning against Finn’s shoulder, the two of them reading through a holomanual on basic etiquette - not something that Stormtroopers or scavengers often learn. “Let me try and see if there was anything about that in what Master Skellig gave me.”

Finn’s read another three pages when she says, “The grounder gets protection. Companionship. No other Force-users will try to bond with them. And - there’s something else, but I can’t quite get it.” She grimaces. “Actually, I’m not even sure Master Skellig understood it. It’s just ‘the blessings of the Force are multiplied for the Blessed One as well.’ Whatever that means.”

“Your ancient information-giver could have been more useful,” Finn sighs. “Sure you don’t want to go touch that bit of rock again?”

“One planet-sized headache was enough, thanks,” Rey says, and digs a knuckle into his ribs right where he’s most sensitive. The rest of the evening is lost to a shrieking tickle-fight.

*

“His _laugh_ ,” says Finn despairingly one evening. “It’s like he’s just...happy down to his _soul_.”

“And his _hands_ ,” Rey replies, almost desperately. “It’s not _fair_ how nice his hands are.”

“And his stupid beautiful _face_ , I just want to kiss him all the time,” Finn laments. “And, and…”

“And he _smells so good!_ ” they finish in chorus.

“Engine oil and maleness and _home_ ,” Finn sighs.

Rey laughs, a little wildly. “No wonder the ancient Jedi were always getting into fights over grounders,” she says ruefully. “Imagine both of us feeling like this and _not_ liking each other.”

Finn winces. “That would be...really bad,” he agrees. “Like, fatally bad.” He grimaces. “Honestly, I’m having some trouble not going off at anyone who flirts with him.”

“Oh, stars, you too?” Rey says. “I nearly jumped down Pava’s throat yesterday, and I _know_ she was just being friendly.”

“More meditation,” Finn sighs. “We _can_ control this.”

“Yeah,” Rey agrees. “It just won’t be fun.”

*

They get a mission, just the three of them: Poe to fly, Finn to shoot, and Rey to hit things if necessary. It’s more complicated than that when the General and Master Skywalker say it, though. They’re going to a planet where there might be a Jedi artifact of some sort, Master Skywalker thinks, something that might give the Resistance an edge.

So of course it goes spectacularly wrong.

Kylo Ren is there - Finn and Rey can smell him as soon as they step off the ship - and then Poe comes down the ramp, stops dead, falls to his knees and begins retching helplessly.

Rey and Finn exchange a frantic glance, and then Finn scoops Poe up in his arms and carries him back onto the ship while Rey flings herself into the pilot’s seat and gets them off the planet as quickly as possible.

“What the _kriff_ was that,” Poe say once they are a couple of parsecs away and he has stopped retching. “It was _foul_. Couldn’t you smell it?”

“No?” says Finn dubiously. “We smelled Kylo Ren, who’s no bouquet of flowers, and - I think I smelled General Hux, and he doesn’t exactly smell pleasant either - but that’s it.”

Rey punches the ship into hyperspace and comes back to join them. “I didn’t smell anything but Ren and someone I didn’t recognize,” she agrees. “But if you say there was something else, I believe you.”

Poe grimaces, wiping his mouth. Finn hands him a cloth and a glass of water. “It was like walking into an open sewer,” Poe says grimly, and then, “Look, can you - can you see my memory, if I let you?”

Rey blinks at him in astonishment. “You want me to go into your head?”

“If you can do it without hurting me,” Poe says, wincing a little. “But I _have_ to know what the kriff it was that I smelled and you two didn’t.”

Rey looks at Finn for a moment, then shrugs a little. “Okay, I think I can,” she says. “Just...think hard about that memory, and try to trust me?”

“I trust you,” Poe says instantly. “I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

Rey gives him such a sweet smile that it makes _Finn’s_ heart skip a beat. “Okay then,” she says, and reaches out to put a hand on Poe’s cheek, looking squarely into his eyes.

Poe goes still, with a tiny shiver running through him, and Finn braces him a little more firmly and holds his breath, hoping desperately that this will work. And then Rey nods, breaking eye contact, and steps away, and Poe sags a little against Finn’s bracing hands.

“That...didn’t hurt,” he says, sounding a little surprised and very relieved. “Felt kind of nice, actually.”

Rey grins. “Good,” she says.

“So, did you get anything?” Finn asks.

“It wasn’t a smell,” Rey says. “I mean, it _felt_ like a smell, but it wasn’t. It just...you ran into something with your mind, I think, and your mind hated it so much it told you it was an awful smell.”

“That...doesn’t reassure me,” Poe says slowly. “What the kriff did I run into, then?”

“Well,” says Rey, slowly, “the only two people _we_ could smell were Ren and Hux. And it wasn’t Ren - you’ve met him before and didn’t react like this. So as a working theory - probably Hux?”

“Why on earth would General Hux make me that _ill_?” Poe demands.

Finn and Rey shrug helplessly. “If we knew we’d tell you,” Finn says.

“Maybe Master Skywalker will know?” Rey suggests.

*

“I have no idea,” says Master Skywalker. “But then, I know very little about grounders. There is only a very little about them even in the most ancient legends.”

“...Master Skywalker, may I borrow that stone again?” says Rey.

*

_I wondered how long it would take you to return,_ says the Force-ghost. It is decidedly _not_ Master Skellig, being far shorter and far more female. _I am Cetia. I was bonded to Skellig as his Blessed One until our death - and chose to remain with him, knowing that some day you would need my counsel._

_Thank you, Blessed One_ , Rey replies. _I do indeed have great need of your advice_.

_Tell me_ , says Cetia. Rey does.

*

“That hurt less than the last time,” Rey says, opening her eyes to the unfortunately familiar sight of the med bay.

“Did it work?” Finn asks, handing her a painkiller and a glass of water. Rey swallows it down.

“Yes, and thank you,” she says. “Now I know what happened.”

Master Skywalker gives her a curious look, but she shakes her head. “It’s...it’s for Poe to know, and _maybe_ Finn if Poe agrees, Master,” she says apologetically. “It’s not Jedi lore, or at least it isn’t anymore, and maybe it shouldn’t be ever again.”

“There are always things I was not meant to know,” Master Skywalker says placidly, and leaves the med bay without complaint.

“Can we do this somewhere more comfortable?” Rey asks plaintively.

*

They end up in Poe’s room, sitting on the bed with BB-8 whirling in circles in front of them. Rey flops down into Finn’s lap and lets him rub her temples, eyes closed half in contentment, half so she won’t have to see Poe’s face.

“So it’s like this,” she says. “Grounders - Blessed Ones - are empaths. The Light-Side ones spread joy and happiness around them.”

“Like you do,” Finn says, and she can _hear_ him grinning at Poe. “Everyone’s happier when you’re around. People don’t argue as much, either.”

“Exactly,” Rey agrees.

“You specified ‘Light Side,’” Poe says. “That...implies a Dark Side.”

Rey grimaces and nods a little, trying not to dislodge Finn’s soothing fingers. “Dark Side grounders spread hatred and misery. And when a Light Side grounder meets a Dark Side grounder - well, when I met Kylo Ren, I knew he was just _wrong_ in every possible way. I think that’s what happened to you when you sensed Hux - if he’s a Dark Side grounder, and you sensed him, your...your empathy would have just kind of...well...rebelled.”

“So I have...empathic powers?” Poe says dubiously. “That’s...actually that makes a weird sort of sense. You guys have enhanced senses, I have enhanced...what would that be, emotions?”

There’s a long silence. Finally Rey says, “So we should probably make sure you don’t get anywhere near Hux anytime soon.”

“That...would seem to be the most relevant lesson here,” Poe agrees wryly. “Out of curiosity, though: if I bond with you two, you get stronger and your control gets better. What happens if Kylo Ren bonds with General Hux?”

“...I really don’t want to think about it,” Rey says plaintively. “Just for tonight.”

“Just for tonight,” Finn agrees. “You’ve done a lot already today. Sleep off the headache.”

“Thanks,” Rey mutters, and falls asleep in his lap.


	5. Chapter 5

“So you’d be at a disadvantage, if Kylo Ren was bonded and you weren’t,” Poe says.

Rey doesn’t jump, because she heard him coming several corridors away. She can track Poe by his heartbeat, now, anywhere on D’Qar base; if he’s close enough, she can find him by smell, too. But she does startle a little, because he’s been standing watching her work on the insides of this droid for a while now, and she’d thought he wasn’t going to say anything at all.

“I guess,” she says, as she finishes closing up the access port and pats the droid on a patch of metal roughly analogous to a shoulder. “There you go, I cleaned out that corrosion for you and you shouldn’t have that shorting problem anymore,” she tells the droid, which beeps grateful acknowledgement and rolls away as she turns to look at Poe.

“I guess so,” she says again, “but that would be a shitty reason to bond with us.”

“What would be a good reason, then?” Poe asks curiously.

Rey is currently running on too little sleep and too many rocks thrown at her by her Jedi Master, or she wouldn’t say what she does, which is, “Finn and I want to sleep beside you and wake up beside you. We want to know what your skin tastes like everywhere. We want to know all the sounds you can make when we touch you. We want to kiss you when you are happy and when you are sad and when you are angry and when you are laughing and learn all the different tastes of your emotions. We want to protect you from everything and make you happy all your days and be where you are regardless of where that might be. And we know you don’t need protecting, and that makes us love you more. If you want to bond with us because you want all of that, too, then maybe that’s a good reason. But if you think it’s your _duty_ , then fuck that, go and find someone you love and be happy, because that’s all we really want, Finn and me, is for you to be _happy_. That’s all.”

Poe stares at her blankly for a while. Rey takes a few deep breaths and reaches for calm. “Sorry,” she says, “I’m...tired. I’m going to take a nap.” And flees for her bunk.

*

Finn looks up from the holomanual he’s studying - basic medicine as practiced by the Resistance, rather than the kill-or-cure methods of the First Order - when Poe pokes his head into the rec room. “What’s wrong?” Finn asks, dropping the datapad on a table, because Poe smells _worried_ , and that can’t be good.

“I was just...I think I may have just pissed Rey off,” Poe admits sheepishly.

“How?” Finn asks practically.

“I...may have suggested that I was thinking about bonding with you two because it would help the war effort. She…”

“Took it badly,” Finn says grimly. “So do I.”

Poe winces. “Sorry?”

“Look,” Finn says, “we may have been attracted to you in the beginning because, frankly, you smell _really kriffing good_. But that’s...not even the most important part of it anymore. You’re all...” he flails his hands a bit. “You’re sweet and funny and brave and an incredible pilot and you tell really bad jokes and you sing so well and you’re kriffing gorgeous and yeah, maybe Rey and I wouldn’t be thinking about _sharing_ you if it weren’t for the grounder thing, but we’d both still _want_ you.” He sighs. “And if you’d only agree to bond with us for - for _duty_ \- then no. We don’t, we _can’t_ want that. Not when we love you.”

Poe flushes bright red. “I - buddy,” he says weakly. “I didn’t...I thought it was all instincts for you two.”

“It’s not,” Finn says shortly.

“I...sorry,” Poe says, and beats an undignified retreat. Finn goes to find Rey.

*

“Finn, I’m sorry, I think I messed it all up,” Rey says when Finn comes into their shared room.

“Actually, I think _I_ may have messed it all up,” Finn confesses, and collapses on her bed beside her. “I might have told him we love him.”

“I might have told him we just want him to be happy, with or without us,” Rey replies. “Which...comes to the same thing, I think.”

“A bit, yeah.” They look at each other helplessly.

“But I think he thought we were only after him for...for instinct and duty,” Finn points out after a moment. “So, really, it’s just as well we told him the truth.”

Rey snorts a laugh and curls around to put her head in Finn’s lap. “I don’t know how to do this,” she says. “I’ve got two ancient ghosts in my head, and Master Skywalker being cryptic, and all I really want to do is hole up with you and Poe and just...I don’t even know. Spend a whole lot of time learning the two of you from head to toe, so I’ll know you forever.”

“Sounds good to me,” Finn admits, stroking her hair gently. “And I can _smell_ how tired you are, Rey, so get some sleep. I’ll...I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Thanks,” Rey says softly. “Even if I don’t have Poe...I’m glad I have you.”

*

They don’t see Poe for two weeks. “Scouting mission,” the General tells them when they ask. “He came and asked to be sent out a few days ago. Did you have a spat?”

“No,” they assure her, and retreat hastily from the command center.

“ _Did_ we have a spat?” Rey asks Finn. “What’s a spat?”

“I don’t know,” Finn admits. “It doesn’t sound good.”

Rey considers this. “Want to go beat the crap out of each other with quarterstaffs?”

“Yeah,” says Finn, grinning. “ _That_ sounds good.”

*

“It occurs to me,” Rey says, after they have beaten each other quite thoroughly with quarterstaffs and then meditated for several hours, “that if Poe ever _does_ agree to bond with us -”

“Unlikely as that currently seems,” Finn mutters disconsolately. Rey leans against his shoulder and sighs.

“ _If_ he ever agrees to bond with us, it’d probably be good if we knew how to have sex. And I don’t. Do you?”

“Uh,” says Finn. “I know the...theory, I guess. If you did really well, in the Stormtrooper program - smart and fast and loyal - they’d let you have copulation privileges for the purposes of breeding. But you have to have been in combat, and my first battle, well, I defected right after.”

“That’s...probably not the same thing,” Rey says.

“No, I expect not.”

“I don’t really want to ask the General. Or Master Skywalker.”

“Oh kriff no,” Finn agrees fervently.

“Med droids?”

“Med droids.”

*

Some hours later they retreat to their bedroom with a truly worrisome number of holomanuals and a new set of contraceptive implants apiece. Rey flops down on her bed and buries her head under the pillow. “Everything is so _complicated_ ,” she whimpers. If Finn wasn’t a Jedi, it would have been incomprehensible; as it is, he flops down beside her and puts an arm over his face.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Being a Stormtrooper was a _lot_ easier, in some ways. We just did as we were told.”

“Being a scavenger was easier,” Rey says, pulling the pillow away and lumping it up so she can rest her chin on it. “Find things, eat. Don’t find things, starve.”

“I didn’t have friends, when I was a Stormtrooper,” Finn says softly. “Nobody who would have come back for me, even if it _hadn’t_ been against orders.”

“I didn’t have friends on Jakku,” Rey replies, leaning against Finn’s shoulder. “Too dangerous. I saw too many people get killed by making the wrong friends.”

“So this is _better_ ,” Finn concludes. “Just...harder.”

There’s a silence. Then Rey asks, “If Poe...never wants us. Do we want to be lovers anyway?”

Finn thinks about it. “You’re mine,” he says at last, “and I’m yours. We promised. If you want to be lovers, we’ll do that. If you want to be friends, we’ll do that. I would probably like doing - those things the med droid described, with you. But I haven’t needed to do those things yet, and if you don’t want to, I don’t need to now, either.”

Rey thumps a fist on his shoulder, carefully missing all of his new bruises. “You are unfairly perfect, Finn no-last-name.”

“Hey,” Finn says, and then, “Oh, _hey_. If Poe _did_ bond with us - people take each other’s last names when they get married, right? Would we be Damerons, then?”

Rey stares at him in wild glee. “Oh stars, you’re _right_. Finn Dameron. Has a nice ring to it!”

“Rey Dameron,” he teases back. “Yeah, sounds good.”

“Oh kriff,” Rey sighs. “If Poe really doesn’t want anything to do with us, I’m gonna want to get drunk and maybe eat a whole cake to drown my sorrows.”

“Split the cake with me,” Finn says mournfully. “I’ll bring extra alcohol.”

*

The two weeks that Poe is on his mission are _very_ long. Finn and Rey meditate and spar and chase each other through the base, playing hide-and-seek as only Force-users can, with false trails and the use of engines to drown out the sound of heartbeats, and at night they read through their new holomanuals and marvel at all the ways bodies can fit together.

“I like _this_ one,” Finn says, decisively.

“I’m not that flexible,” Rey objects. “This one’s better.”

“ _I’m_ not that flexible,” Finn points out.

“This one, then,” Rey says, and Finn drops his head onto her shoulder and giggles helplessly.

“Cruel woman,” he says merrily, and she hits him with a pillow, and that’s the end of _that_ study session.

*

“Talk to me,” the General orders them sometime in the second week. “My brother’s being cryptic and Dameron was, astonishingly enough, even worse. What is going on?”

Rey explains about grounders and bonding, tentative and hesitant as she so rarely is. The General winces a little when she’s done.

“Ah,” she says. “Yes. I can see how that might have sent Dameron off like someone lit a fire under his tail. But he’ll come back. A blind fool could see how much he adores the two of you. My _brother_ can see how much he adores you.” And then she offers them a wry half-grin. “And I should note: I was very good friends with Poe Dameron’s parents. The probability that either of you is actually related to him is quite low.”

“That was...a thing to worry about?” Finn asks hesitantly.

Leia sighs. “Unfortunately, yes,” she says. “Or did no one tell you the story of me and Luke and Han yet?”

“Er. No?” says Finn, which is how they end up eating dinner with the General while she tells them a completely unbelievable and yet utterly true tale about a farmboy from Tatooine who saved the galaxy, and his twin sister whom he’d never met, and the smuggler they both adored.

*

“We may be kin, but I’m actually kind of glad you’re probably not my brother,” Rey says later that night.

“...Yeah,” Finn agrees. “That would be...kind of awkward.”

“Also I suspect it would weird Poe out even more than everything _else_ has,” Rey says ruefully.

“...We can never ask Master Skywalker about this,” Finn says after a moment.

“Oh _kriff_ no,” Rey agrees.


	6. Chapter 6

Rey and Finn know that Poe has come back as soon as he steps out of his ship: the unmistakable rhythm of his heartbeat breaks into their meditation and sends them shooting to their feet.

“He’s here,” Finn breathes, voice full of joy.

“He’s _back_ ,” Rey says, in a tone of awe and wonder more suited to the annunciation of a god.

“Oh kriff - what do we _do_?” They stare at each other in panic.

“You sit down and finish meditating,” Master Skywalker says sternly. “He will want food, a shower, and sleep, in that order, and before that he’ll need to debrief. Let him get himself put together before you ambush him.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker,” they chorus, and sit back down.

*

They finally meet up with Poe at dinner, though they’ve both been tracing his progress through the base, tracking his heartbeat, without really meaning to. He waves them over to his table cheerfully, and they sit and listen eagerly as he regales them and the other pilots with tales of what he saw on his scouting run. Most of it is good news, which is a pleasant surprise.

When dinner is over, Poe beckons them to follow him, and they trail him in nervous silence up to the roof and sit down facing him, not quite daring to lean against him as they usually do.

“So I was about five days out when I realized how much I _missed_ you guys,” Poe says quietly into their waiting silence. “It seemed like every third thought was ‘Finn would like this’ or ‘I should tell Rey that.’ It got so bad that BB-8 started accusing me of pining worse than Snap did back when _he_ was courting - and Snap had it _bad_.” He gives them a lopsided, weary grin. “So I spent the next week and change thinking about it as a chance to be with _you_ instead of as...as this mystical Jedi wedding with extra voices in my head.”

There’s a long silence. Rey finally breaks it: “And...you decided?”

Poe shakes his head a little. “Sorry - drifted off a little. Long mission.”

“We can wait to have this conversation until after you’ve gotten some sleep,” Finn suggests.

“That’s not a horrible idea,” Poe agrees, “but what I _wanted_ to say, before I go pass out, is that - is that if we could sort of _test_ having you in my head? That might be...good.”

Rey and Finn glance at each other. “Sure,” says Rey. “Tomorrow.”

Finn stands and pulls Poe to his feet, slinging one of Poe’s arms over his shoulders. “Tonight we put you to bed before you pass out in a stairwell.”

“I’m not _that_ tired,” Poe objects, and then yawns cavernously. Rey snickers and tucks herself under his other arm.

“Yeah, you are,” she says. “Come on. Bedtime for the best pilot in the Resistance.”

“I don’t think that’s going to make a very good children’s holo,” Poe mutters. Finn stifles a laugh.

“I dunno, might catch on,” he says. “How’d that one you showed me go? ‘Goodnight X-Wing, goodnight pilot, goodnight droid who knows better than to try and stay up late after two weeks on a mission’?”

“I don’t think that’s how it went,” Rey says, snickering.

“Well, it should’ve,” Finn argues, tugging the door to Poe’s room open so they can steer him inside. BB-8 bloops merrily at them from its charging point. “Hey, BB-8,” Finn adds, “make sure this glorious idiot stays in bed until he’s _rested_ , would you?”

BB-8 beeps affirmation. Poe, apparently already mostly asleep, mutters something which is probably unflattering. Rey laughs at him and tips him onto the bunk; Finn tugs his boots off and drops a blanket on top of him.

“Sleep well,” Rey says.

“G’nigh,” Poe slurs, and starts snoring.

Rey and Finn make it all the way back to their own room before the laughter wins.

*

Poe finds them again at lunch the next day. He looks rather as if he’s only just woken up, and the fact that he settles down with caf and eggs rather than a sandwich rather bears that out. “Did you guys tell BB-8 not to let me out of bed?” he asks.

“We told him to make you stay till you were rested,” Finn admits.

“I’d be more irritated if I didn’t feel _so much better_ ,” Poe says wryly. “But don’t make a habit of it.”

“We won’t,” Rey promises. “It was just - you were _wiped_.”

“I was,” Poe agrees. “I can’t even remember how far along our conversation got, honestly.” He gives them a sheepish grin. “Did I get to asking you to try out the mind-reading thing, just to see?”

“You did,” Finn says.

“We agreed,” Rey adds.

“Oh,” says Poe. “That was a little easier than I thought it would be.”

“Poe,” says Finn, grinning, “we’re never going to say ‘no’ to spending time with you.”

Poe blinks at them for a moment. “You know, it’s actually a little disturbing how you both look at me,” he comments. “I am not used to people giving me looks of utter devotion.”

“You should be,” Finn says instantly. Poe goes pink.

“If you weren’t so perfect for us, we wouldn’t be so attracted to you,” Rey says, quite logically. “I mean, you don’t see Master Skywalker following you around.”

“Oh thank the kriffing _stars_ ,” Poe says weakly. “That might actually break my mind.”

“Yeah, that would be awkward,” Finn agrees.

“Can we just forget the last few minutes and go find a private place to see if having you two in my head is bearable?” Poe asks hopefully.

“Sure,” Rey says, standing and picking up her tray. “And just so’s you know, Master Skywalker just came into the mess hall - I think he may have heard some of that.”

Poe knocks his head gently on the table. “My _life_ ,” he whimpers quietly.

*

They end up going out to one of the meadows near the base, where no one is likely to bother them, and settling beneath an old tree with smooth-worn roots which make surprisingly good seats. BB-8 follows them and amuses itself by rolling laps around the tree and chasing falling leaves.

“So,” says Poe. “How…?”

“Just like when you gave me the memory of Hux,” Rey says reassuringly. “ _That_ didn’t hurt, did it?”

“No,” Poe admits.

“And we’ve been practicing with each other, while we meditate,” Rey says. “We’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

Finn smiles. “Rey has a _nice_ mind,” he says. “It’s all organized.”

“Finn’s is all...happy,” Rey says. “And full of light.” She grimaces. “And - I’ve been in Kylo Ren’s mind. It’s all sharp edges and nastiness. I don’t think ours will hurt you like he did.”

“That’s...actually incredibly reassuring,” Poe says, and moves to sit facing her and Finn. “So, how do we do this, then?”

Rey reaches out and takes Finn’s hand, then lays her other hand gently on Poe’s cheek; Finn mirrors her on Poe’s other side. “Just...let us see,” Rey says quietly, and Poe nods a little and tries hard to relax beneath their hands.

_There_ , says Rey, into the joy which is their meld. _Force, but you’re beautiful._

_Like sunlight and flying_ , Finn agrees.

_You’re...warm_ , Poe says, astonished.

_Yeah?_

_Kriffing hell, but I love you guys._

The shock of it knocks the connection loose; Rey and Finn startle back, staring at Poe with wide, delighted eyes.

“ _Really_?” says Finn. “You mean it?”

“I wasn’t sure,” Poe admits. “But...that felt like coming home.” He grins, and shifts until he’s on one knee, holding out his hands to them. “So, will you marry me?”

Rey pinches herself, hard. Finn gapes. And then they both fling themselves at Poe, knocking him over backwards under a heap of joyful Jedi.

“Yes,” says Rey, grinning down at him. “Yes, yes, yes.”

“Yes,” Finn agrees, a little muffled by the way he has his face pressed up against the curve of Poe’s neck. “ _Kriff_ yes.”

“You guys,” says Poe, laughing, “it’s not that I _mind_ both of you being on top of me, but maybe not on the _ground_? There’s a root digging into my back.”

They roll off of him and tug him to his feet, patting him down as though to check for injuries. “I’m _fine_ ,” he says, wrapping an arm around each of their waists and tugging them towards the base. “I’m just a little too old to be making out on the ground when there are perfectly good beds available.”

*

They are met at the base entrance by the General and Master Skywalker, both of whom are beaming. “Going to make an honest man of him, are you?” Leia asks Rey and Finn.

“He’s already honest,” says Finn, baffled.

“She means marriage,” Poe tells him, grinning.

“Idioms,” Finn sighs.

“So,” says Rey, “I know what the Jedi-grounder bond entails, but this seems like a good time to ask: what does a marriage involve? I mean, on Jakku people just shared food. And then sometimes killed each other. But I assume that meant the marriage was over.”

“Um,” says Poe, looking at her with mild horror. “That...I mean, yes, one person killing the other does _generally_ end the marriage..”

“Let’s go and sit down and have this conversation somewhere more comfortable,” Leia says. “There’s a _little_ more to marriage than sharing food.”

*

“So usually there’s a ceremony,” Leia says some little time later, once they’re all sat around a table in her quarters and she’s given them all mugs of tea. “You stand up in front of everyone and make vows to each other of some sort. It varies by culture. Some places you’d promise fidelity, others children, others just that you’ll be a business partnership.”

“Oh kriff,” says Rey faintly. “ _Children_?”

“Not until after the war, please,” Poe says, just as weakly.

“They’d be so _cute_ ,” says Finn, dreamily. Rey and Poe give him long, dubious looks. Finn gulps. “I mean, but not until after the war?”

“It’s also customary to share names,” Leia continues, and Rey’s ears go pink. “Which I see you already know.”

“Huh,” Poe says, almost under his breath. “Rey and Finn Dameron. Has a nice sound.”

Rey and Finn exchange a desperate glance. It would be wrong to kiss Poe in front of Leia and Master Skywalker, right?

“From that point on, you’d usually be expected to share living quarters - and we _do_ make arrangements for married persons - and to have linked, if not joined, business interests. There are legal protections, though they vary by planet, and you’d become each other’s next of kin. There’s often an expectation of fidelity of _some_ sort, though it’s not always sexual fidelity.

“And last but not least,” Leia finishes, “there’s usually a party.”

“Oh _kriff_ ,” says Poe. “Pava is going to get _so very drunk_.”


	7. Chapter 7

There is a party. Pava gets very, _very_ drunk, and leads the rest of the pilots in a very bawdy song celebrating Poe’s putative exploits.

Before the party, Finn and Rey and Poe stand up in front of the entire rest of the base and promise to be faithful and true to one another for all the years that they shall have.

And after the party they retreat to Poe’s room - it has the largest bed - and stand there looking at each other in awe and confusion for a long moment.

“Right,” says Poe. “Bonding. How do we do this - do we just have fun, or is there an ancient Jedi ritual, and if so does it involve body paint, because body paint is less fun than it sounds.”

Rey giggles, Finn snorts with laughter, and the tension in the room drops considerably.

“We mostly just have fun,” Rey says. “But when we’re...copulating...you have to be in the middle.”

Poe’s cheeks go pink, and he gets a sort of far-away look in his eyes. Rey and Finn can both smell the fact that he’s suddenly a _lot_ more aroused. “I can work with that,” he says faintly, then shakes himself a little. “Second question: do either of you know what you’re doing?”

“We know the _theory_ ,” Rey says.

“We’ve been _studying_ the theory,” Finn puts in, grinning at how that makes Poe’s breath come short.

“But we haven’t tried it yet,” Rey finishes. “We were...waiting.”

“For me?” Poe asks, looking a little stricken.

Finn shrugs. “More...to know if we’d get to have you or not. If you’d said no, you didn’t want to be ours, we might have - probably would have - started trying it just between us.”

Rey gives Finn a broad grin. “ _Definitely_ would have,” she says.

Poe relaxes. “That’s...that’s alright then.” He holds out his hands, beckoning to them. “So, come and kiss me, beloveds.”

Rey swallows hard. Finn makes a soft, high sound in the back of his throat. And then they are crowding Poe back onto his bed, sprawling out atop him, and Finn leans in and kisses him, unpracticed and enthusiastic and desperate. Poe manages to gentle the kiss, to turn it into something soft and slow and sweet, and then Finn pulls away, gasping, and Rey leans in to take his place. She is fiercer than Finn was, her kiss full of teeth and hunger, and Poe whimpers softly and lets himself be devoured.

“Want to taste you, want to taste you _everywhere_ ,” Rey pants as she pulls back.

“Kriff yes,” Finn says. “Please, can we?”

“ _Yes_ ,” says Poe.

They peel him out of his clothes with gentle, inexpert hands, and set themselves to their new and delightful task.

*

Rey likes the way Poe tastes at the hinge of his jaw and the line of his throat, the way his sweat is salty beneath her tongue, the way his moans reverberate through her lips and into her bones. She likes the way he smells, like lust and maleness and safety, dangerous and reassuring all at the same time. She likes the feel of his smooth skin under her fingertips, the tiny imperfections of his scars. She likes the _strength_ of him when he arches up against her, the breadth of his chest and the curves of his arms and the way he lets her pin him to the bed, wrists firmly grasped in her strong hands, and looks up at her with blown-black eyes and smiles.

Finn likes the way Poe tastes at the curve of his hip, at the juncture between thigh and groin where his smell is strongest, muskiest, likes the salt-male taste of the precum leaking from the tip of Poe’s cock. He likes the way Poe trembles beneath his hands, little half-felt shivers like he wants to thrust up against Finn’s curious mouth and is only holding himself back by sheer force of will. He likes the lean strength of Poe’s legs and the easy way Poe spreads them wide to let Finn settle beneath them, likes the sound of Poe’s gasping curses as Finn and Rey find new and interesting spots to lick and stroke and bite.

“Oil,” says Poe, when Finn’s fingers drift down past his balls, gentle and curious. “Bedside table.”

Rey grabs it, tosses the bottle down to Finn and buries both hands in Poe’s hair and kisses him as fiercely and lovingly as she can. He goes pliant beneath her, beneath them both, gasping into the kiss and licking into her mouth when she lets him.

Finn takes his time, smelling the oil - even tasting it - it’s probably bland to anyone without the Force, but to him it tastes artificial and a little bitter. Finn resolves to do some research in the days to come: there must be something out there which tastes better. But it’s very slippery and doesn’t smell very much - certainly doesn’t overpower the wonderful smell of _Poe_ \- so it’ll do well enough. He slicks his fingers thoroughly, sits back on his heels to admire the beautiful sight of Rey kissing Poe into a whimpering mess, and slides one oiled finger gently across Poe’s entrance.

Poe moans, long and sweet. “Kriff yes,” he says against Rey’s lips.

He opens easily around Finn’s finger. Finn gasps, feeling as though all the breath has been punched out of him. “Rey,” he says hoarsely. “You have to - he’s so _warm_.”

Rey pulls away from the kiss, wriggles around until she’s kneeling by Poe’s hip and slicks her fingers with oil. Poe reaches over to tug a pillow behind his head so he can see them better. “Alright?” Rey asks him.

“Kriff yes,” Poe says again.

Rey slides a finger into him beside Finn’s and whimpers softly. “Finn,” she says, “Finn, he’s…”

“I _know_ ,” says Finn.

“ _Move_ ,” says Poe, grinning.

“Like this?” Finn asks, sliding his finger gently out and in again. Rey mimics him. “Or - there was something in the manual, Rey, remember -”

“Yes,” says Rey, and crooks her finger. Poe’s head hits the pillow hard as he tosses it back in pleasure.

“Oh _stars_ ,” he says. “I forgot for a moment there that you two are kriffing _prodigies_.”

“Oh, is that what we are,” Rey says merrily. But she pulls away, hopping off the bed entirely and stripping down with swift, efficient motions. “Your turn,” she tells Finn, who nods and trades places with her. She stretches out on top of Poe, reveling in the warmth of his skin, and he tangles his fingers gently in her hair and pulls her into a kiss.

“Let me?” Poe murmurs against her lips, and Rey laughs.

“Anything,” she says, “always.”

Poe rolls them over. Rey moans at the sudden warm weight atop her - not trapping her, as she had occasionally feared this would feel, but comforting, like a heavy blanket on a cold night. Only smelling _much_ better. She hooks her feet around his ankles and tugs his legs apart so that Finn can get back on the bed, then moans as Poe’s hips nestle into the cradle of her own.

“Oh, kriff,” Poe murmurs. “You’re so wet for me, sweetheart - next time I want to get my mouth on _you_ , want to eat you out, want to hear you moan for me.”

Finn says, “Poe, I can _still hear you_. Kriff, the _mouth_ on you.”

Poe chuckles, spreads his legs a little wider. “You’re one to talk; I swear looking at you and _not_ kissing you is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

“ _Rey_ ,” says Finn desperately, and Rey hauls Poe down into a deep kiss to shut him up. The rumbling moans he makes in response aren’t actually much less appealing than the talking.

Finn dips his fingers in the oil again, slides them down Poe’s cleft and, when Poe tries to open his legs even wider, into him. Poe pulls away from Rey long enough to gasp, “Finn, I’m good - you tease me any more and this is gonna end a little too soon!”

Finn takes a deep breath, slides his fingers out and takes a firm grip on Poe’s hips, tugging him back and up until he’s poised between Finn and Rey. Rey wriggles until she’s perfectly comfortable, legs bracketing Poe’s hips, hands gentle on his face. “Poe,” she says, “yes?”

“Kriffing hell, _yes_ ,” says Poe, and Finn pushes into him, pushes him into Rey, and the sound they make is hunger made audible.

Rey says, “Poe - Poe, let us in,” and then between one breath and the next they are -

_elsewhere_ -

and Rey can feel how hot and tight Poe feels around Finn’s cock, how perfect _she_ feels around _Poe’s_ cock, knows that Finn can feel the wonder of being filled reflected back from her and Poe alike, pleasure refracting through them all like an endless series of mirrors, and it’s really no wonder they all come so quickly, because _holy kriffing hell_.

“Stars,” says Poe, some time later, into Rey’s shoulder. “Is it going to feel like that _every time_? Because if it is, I’m going to need to ask the med droids for supplements or something.”

Finn laughs. Rey can feel it in her _mind_ , furry and wonderful. Poe twitches, and she knows he can feel it too.

“Not every time,” she says. “Just for the bonding.”

“I can feel you in my _head_ ,” Poe says wonderingly. “You’re so warm, both of you.”

“You’re _perfect_ ,” Finn says. “Both of you.”

“You’re wonderful, both of you,” Rey says. “You’re also quite heavy.”

“Oops,” says Finn sheepishly. “Sorry.” He rolls away carefully, gets up to fetch a handful of wet washcloths while Poe and Rey flop side-by-side and grin at each other, and then snuggles down between them when he comes back. “My turn in the middle.”

Rey laughs, and Poe shifts so he’s sprawled half across Finn’s chest. “You make a good pillow, buddy,” he mutters. Rey and Finn exchange a look and a snicker.

“Sleep, then, bondmates,” Rey says, and uses the Force to flick off the lightswitch. Finn tucks an arm under her and hauls her a little closer, and she falls asleep with her head on his shoulder and one hand clasped firmly in Poe’s.


	8. Epilogue

“Red, Blue, form on me,” Poe says, and the X-Wings fall into formation behind him, ready for another strafing run at the base beneath their gunsights.

_All good?_ Rey asks, from three planets away, where she and Master Skywalker are hunting for Jedi artifacts.

_All good,_ Poe tells her, taking just a tiny moment to bask in the feel of her brushing against his mind, warm and sweet.

_All good, bondmates_ , says Finn, from the command center back at D’Qar. _Let’s do this_.

“All squadrons, fire at will,” Poe says, and tilts his X-Wing down into a dive, his bondmates at the back of his mind like twin hearthfires, blazing with love and joy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for this one! Thank you all so much for reading; thanks as always to the best ever beta and plotbunny whisperer, my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw. I'll be starting another long fic next Monday.

**Author's Note:**

> Updates Mondays.


End file.
